Should I Have My House on the Market for the Holidays?

If you have your ears or eyes peeled on anything real estate this time of year, you’ve heard or seen some variation of “The holidays are a great time to sell” real estate marketing theme. It goes something like this…“Inventory is low”, “Winter buyers are serious”, “Relocations take place in the 4th quarter”, “Demand is strong”, “There’s less competition”. The answer appears clear.

If you google “Should I have my house on the market for the holidays” in .5 seconds you’ll get 132,000 search results.

I guess that makes this 132,001….

“Should I have my house on the market for the holidays?”

Should you? I don’t know.

I’m not big on shoulds. If you ask me, we live by too many shoulds. Shoulds exert control, they’re stressful. Shoulds mean we do things, not by choice, but because we think we have to.

Selling a home is loaded with shoulds. That’s one of the reasons it’s so stressful, the shoulds exerting their control. The shoulds creating the sense that your life and your house are no longer your own. Both being given over to the task of selling the house. Selling a home isn’t fun…it’s stressful. Even under the best of circumstances…it’s no fun mostly because of the shoulds:

You should keep your house super clean.

You should be ready to have your day, evening, weekend disrupted by showings and you should disappear for the hours they’re scheduled.

You should accept that there will be compromises to make…your home is worth the value the market puts on it and you may get much of what you want, but not everything is going to go your way.

You should know there will be no-shows for appointments, late shows, quick shows and long shows.

And while you may abide by your shoulds, there’s no guarantee others will…that feedback the agent should send? The lights that should be turned off? It’s not going to happen every time.

You should be aware of and prepared for all of this.

So…”Should I have my home on the market during the holidays?” You can decide. You should decide.

If you are ready to move and don’t mind the shoulds this time of year…don’t let the holidays stop you…

Homes sell every day of the year.

There are agents that can tell you stories of the homes they sold on Christmas Day…homes they showed and sold in blizzard conditions.

Homes sell every day, and yours can too. If your home is on the market and you need a break, you can take one…

If you want to have out of town guests for the holidays or want to throw your annual holiday party without worry that someone is going to call for an appointment the next morning…

If you’d rather spend the next couple of weeks with cookie sheets spread across your kitchen counters, or want to leave your wrapping paper and gifts on the dining room table to wrap at your leisure you can do that too.

The shoulds will still be there after the holidays…homes sell every day and yours will too.

The first, most important should in real estate is…YOU. You should first consider you.

Selling a home is always only one piece of life’s puzzle…a part of a larger transition…one part of a larger life decision…and it’s with the entire puzzle in mind all real estate decisionsare best made.

Selling a home means shoulds…and it’s doing the shoulds that will get your home sold. It’s not the time of year that matters. It’s when you’re ready and best able to give up fun and turn your life and house over to the task of selling your home. It’s when you are ready for the shoulds that make the difference.

Selling a house is a list of shoulds, but “during the holidays” isn’t one of them.

“Should I have my home on the market during the holidays?” You don’t need to listen to real estate’s marketing themes and you don’t need this one or the 132,000 other search results to the query…